Big, beautiful budgets: not just an American problem
Across the rich world, governments are splashing the cash. What could go wrong?
LAST YEAR America ran a budget deficit of 7% of GDP. It may soon be even bigger. President Donald Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act, working its way through Congress, permanently extends tax cuts introduced in 2017, offers more to hospitality workers and old folk, and boosts payments to poor children. The proposed legislation amounts to trillions of dollars of extra borrowing over the next decade.
Explore more
This article appeared in the Finance & economics section of the print edition under the headline “Pigging out”
Finance & economics
July 5th 2025- Xi Jinping wages war on price wars
- How to strike a trade deal with Donald Trump
- Big, beautiful budgets: not just an American problem
- Can Trump end America’s $1.8trn student-debt nightmare?
- Vanguard will soon crush fees for even more investors
- Inside Iran’s war economy
- India’s Licence Raj offers America important lessons
From the July 5th 2025 edition
Discover stories from this section and more in the list of contents
Explore the edition
Want to be a good explorer? Study economics
The battle to reduce risk has shaped centuries of ventures
Jane Street is chucked out of India. Other firms should be nervous
Around the world, marketmakers now face extra scrutiny
Japan has been hit by investing fever
Will old folk catch the bug?
Don’t invest through the rearview mirror
Markets are supposed to look forward; plenty of investors look back instead
Trump’s trade deals try a creative way to hobble China
To appease the world’s biggest market, countries must anger the world’s biggest trader
The great dealmaker is conspicuously short of trade deals
Donald Trump issues threats—and grants deadline extensions